Chapter 16 Allusions and other ReferencesAll Excerpts From: S. A. Bodeen. “The Compound.”
scavenger hunt “So that’s it. Turducken must be the clue. Mom let out a breath. “That wasn’t all. The first time he told me about it, he was still nice. He acted like it was just matter-of-fact, a little scavenger hunt. Then, later, when he started to get mean …”“Mom?” “I was afraid he would go back on his word. But then he laughed, said he would leave the clue, even though he didn’t think any of us would be able to figure it out.”
glazed over “Just in case. In case it came to that for some reason.” Dad’s eyes had been clear, but then they seemed to glaze over. He recited part of a poem.
… In this last of meeting placesWe grope togetherAnd avoid speechGathered on this beach of the tumid river …” ergotism “I read the definition aloud. “Poisoning by ingesting ergot-infected grains.” Her face registered confusion. She paled as she understood. “The flour.” ryeI scanned a bit more, trying to find out what I could. “There must have been some rye in it that was already infected with the ergot when it came into the Compound.” sabotage “She looked at me. “Do you think his workers planted the flour?” I didn’t know. “He wouldn’t have wanted us to get sick. I really believe that.” Too ironic, that he went to the trouble to have someone sabotage the food supply and he was sabotaged himself by the flour.”
walking cliche' “Too much of it gives you cyanide poisoning.”
Mom gasped. “But that’s deadly.”I nodded. “That’s the point.”
Dad’s voice was weak. “Can’t survive a nuclear war without cyanide.” Among everything else, my dad turned out to be a walking cliché.”
Chapter 16
Allusions and other ReferencesAll Excerpts From: S. A. Bodeen. “The Compound.”
scavenger hunt
“So that’s it. Turducken must be the clue. Mom let out a breath. “That wasn’t all. The first time he told me about it, he was still nice. He acted like it was just matter-of-fact, a little scavenger hunt. Then, later, when he started to get mean …”“Mom?” “I was afraid he would go back on his word. But then he laughed, said he would leave the clue, even though he didn’t think any of us would be able to figure it out.”
glazed over
“Just in case. In case it came to that for some reason.” Dad’s eyes had been clear, but then they seemed to glaze over. He recited part of a poem.
… In this last of meeting placesWe grope togetherAnd avoid speechGathered on this beach of the tumid river …”
ergotism
“I read the definition aloud. “Poisoning by ingesting ergot-infected grains.” Her face registered confusion. She paled as she understood. “The flour.”
ryeI scanned a bit more, trying to find out what I could. “There must have been some rye in it that was already infected with the ergot when it came into the Compound.”
sabotage
“She looked at me. “Do you think his workers planted the flour?” I didn’t know. “He wouldn’t have wanted us to get sick. I really believe that.” Too ironic, that he went to the trouble to have someone sabotage the food supply and he was sabotaged himself by the flour.”
walking cliche'
“Too much of it gives you cyanide poisoning.”
Mom gasped. “But that’s deadly.”I nodded. “That’s the point.”
Dad’s voice was weak. “Can’t survive a nuclear war without cyanide.” Among everything else, my dad turned out to be a walking cliché.”
Vocabulary and Concepts
just in casemigrainesoverdosesintravenousgurneypassed out
cure
plantedseizuresheartburn
Literary Devices
“I tore the office apart looking for a switch, some way to get on the Internet, the phone, anything. But I kept coming up dry.
I looked over at the door to the secret lab. I couldn’t imagine any Internet switch being there. I had to keep moving.”
“Eight … two … nine …” He kept on with the numbers, so many they didn’t even begin to start sinking in. Like a phone number from hell.
“Dad, please! Hold on, I can’t remember them all.”
“That guy would probably sell his own internal organs for the right price.”
“She shook her head. “And the vomiting and diarrhea. Although today may be the first time that’s happened.”
I frowned. “Those are symptoms for a million things. Let’s focus on the unique things.”